


Exordium

by Zethsaire



Series: Dysfunction [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Green Arrow (Comics), Justice League of America (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Coma, Drug Addiction, Dysfunctional Relationships, Friendship, Gen, Other, Permanent Injury, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-17
Updated: 2013-07-17
Packaged: 2017-12-20 12:00:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/887027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zethsaire/pseuds/Zethsaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prequel to Dysfunction is Our Middle Name</p>
<p>It has been more than a month since Prometheus took Roy's arm and blew up Star City.  Roy is not recovering well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exordium

**Author's Note:**

> This is not a Dick/Roy fic! In Dysfunction, Roy has had an unrequited crush on Dick since practically forever, but Dick is determined to be 'the straight one,' since all of his brothers are gay and/or poly. He and Kori are also quite serious.
> 
> This is a mash-up of fandoms, since the whole Dysfunction series is pretty much just what I felt like taking from comics, movies, Smallville, and other TV spinoffs. In this particular AU, Lian is in a coma, not dead, but Roy still lost his arm and is a recovering heroin addict.
> 
> Warnings for language, descriptions of pain, and just overall angst. Semi-sweet ending.

Roy fought his way to consciousness through a haze of pain, painkillers, and grief. He knew this wasn't the first time he'd woken up since the – assault – but he only knew it subconsciously. He knew he was sad, so very, completely and utterly _broken_ , and he knew he didn't want to stop and think about why. What he did want was something to drink, because his mouth was incredibly dry, and he wanted some better god-damn painkillers.

His whole right side hurt. The pain was radiating from his right arm – it burned, like someone was holding a blow torch to it. He seemed to remember that there was something bad about his right arm. That he really didn't want to think about but that was pressing against the back of his mind. He managed to crack open his eyes, and look over at his arm, hoping he could figure out why it hurt so much.

It wasn't there.

His throat was raw, and if he'd been thinking straight, he’d have realized it was probably because he'd woken up screaming like this several times before.

“Roy, Roy! Calm down, you're going to make your throat bleed again!”

A hand covered his. It was solid – real. Enough that he could stop screaming and take stock of what was going on around him.

“D-Dick?” He said hoarsely. His throat really hurt. He wondered if he'd really screamed until his throat bled.

“Hey Roy.” Nightwing was in street clothes – jeans, a dark blue hoodie, and dark sunglasses, sitting beside what Roy could only assume was his hospital bed.

“Hurts.” He said, because that was pretty much the easiest way to explain everything that was going on with him.

“Yeah.” Dick leaned over and checked his IV drip, probably checking the mix of whatever they had him on. “I can get you a little something probably. You're burning through your morphine pretty quick.

“Water?”

“I can get ya some ice chips.” He said, and gave Roy's hand another squeeze before getting up.

Roy laid there and tried not to think about why his arm was gone. Surely that was the source of the grief he was feeling? But...he didn't want to dig around in his head, just in case that wasn't the only thing. Oh god. He wasn't missing any other limbs, was he? He didn't even know how to try to sit up with one arm and another that hurt as bad as it did. He tried anyway, curse words spilling out of his lips.

“Roy! Don't do that!” Dick was there again, right by his side, forcing him to lay down.

It wasn't hard. Just that small movement made his arm hurt so badly he saw black encroaching on his vision. It shouldn't hurt this much! He wondered if it was poison. If it was fatal. If they were just waiting for him to die, wouldn't there be more people? Or had everyone but Nightwing given up on him?

“What -” He choked on his own throat.

“Ice first.” Dick slipped a piece of ice past his teeth.

Roy sucked on it obediently, looking up when a nurse came in. She had a new bag of fluids, which she set up and switched out for the empty thing on his IV. She also injected two vials of something into the tubing. Roy couldn't decide whether to be happy about the drugs or upset that he probably wouldn't get time to find out what was going on.

“Before I pass out...” Roy said, through the swelling in his throat. “What happened to me?”

Nightwing looked away. “You got hurt Roy. You got hurt bad. You've been unconscious for weeks. And with that much morphine, you'll be out again in a few minutes.”

“Why...why does it hurt so much?” He asked. He'd never lost a limb before, but he'd been stabbed, shot, tazered, whipped and tortured. He had a pretty damn decent pain tolerance. His arm...it just wasn't right.

“Nanites.” Dick sighed, clearly not wanting to talk about it. “Your arm is infected with nanites. They can't get them out, and they're...eating your nerve endings. That's why it hurts so much.”

“...” That sounded way over Roy's head. He didn't use that sort of tech, though there were plenty of villains and members of the League who did.

The pain was beginning to fade. That meant he'd be out soon too.

“Dick -” He tried to reach out with his right hand, then swore, and reached out with his left. “Will you be here when I wake up?”

“I'll do my best.” Nightwing took his hand again, and held it until he passed out.

xxx

 

Dick was still siting there, watching Roy sleep when Ollie came in to check on them. He'd been down in the Children's Ward, vising Lian for the last few hours. Dick was supposed to call him if Roy woke up, but he'd known Roy wouldn't stay awake, so he hadn't.

Lian had been badly hurt in the destruction of Star City. They'd thought she was dead, at first, and only Ollie's sense of paranoia and optimism had made him bring her to a doctor. They'd managed to restart her heart, but she was in a very deep coma, one they weren't sure she'd ever wake up from. It had been a month now, and she hadn't shown any signs of progress.

Roy wasn't much better. Dick had been with him as much as he could. With Bruce dead, he'd had to take up the Batman mantle, and often he'd arrive at the hospital just after patrol, completely exhausted, and sit there for hours, holding Roy's hand and hoping they'd both wake up.

At first, Roy had been kept in the Watchtower, while Cyborg and Dr. Mid-night worked to find a way to stop the flesh eating nanites infecting his system. He'd lost a good bit more of his arm while they’d sweated over a solution,and in the end they'd only been able to stop the spread of the nanites, not kill them outright. They were also supposed to be working on painkillers that Roy could take without falling back into heroin abuse, and that would deal with the pain and let him stay awake for more than a few minutes. They had little success so far.

They'd brought Roy and Lian to Gotham Medical for treatment, because Star city was in ruins, and even though many areas of the city were riddled with crime, Gotham Medical was still one of the leading medical facilities world wide. They'd put Roy in a private room in the Wayne Memorial wing, and Lian was in the children's ward. The League had provided their own security, which Richard Grayson and Timothy Drake-Wayne had approved of and put in place.

Grief gave Dick a reason to stay out of the public eye. Tim was going slightly crazy taking over Wayne Enterprises, burying his grief in his work. Dick trusted Alfred to make sure Tim ate and keep Damien in line while he was gone, which was almost all the time. If he wasn't patrolling, he was researching, or coordinating cleanup and reviewing security measures with the League. The rest of the time, he was here with Roy. He slept in the chair next to his bed, and ate so much food at the hospital that they had gotten a caterer for Roy's room. Apparently he'd caused a minor scandal by appearing in the cafeteria so often.

“They told me he woke up.” Oliver said, pulling up a chair next to Dick.

“He was awake for about ten minutes. But the morphine knocked him out again. Any lower dose, and it doesn't help.” Dick said quietly.

Roy was not sleeping peacefully. His face was furrowed in pain, and his right shoulder kept twitching, like he was trying to move the arm he no longer had. His left hand stayed firm in Dick's grip, like he didn't want to let go. It made Dick's heart ache to see him in that much pain, even when he was asleep. Roy had to recover. They'd lost too many people already. Dick had lost too many people.

“I wish I'd been here.”

“I'm glad you weren't. It was the same as last time. He woke up screaming; I thought he was going to make his throat bleed again. And he didn't remember anything we've talked about the last few times he woke up. And it hurt him really bad Ollie. Just talking to me was agony. I don't know if he's going to pull through. I want him to but...”

Oliver put a hand on Dick's shoulder. “He'll pull through. He's got to. Lian's going to need him when she..when she wakes up.”

Oliver needed to believe that Lian was going to wake up, just like Dick needed to believe that Roy was going to be okay.

“I'll stay with him a while. Why don't you go home and get some rest? Alfred called. He said you haven't slept in your bed in days.”

Right. Home. All his responsibilities waited for him - things he really couldn't afford to put off for Roy very much longer. Especially Damien. He hardly saw the kid except for training and patrol, and that just wasn’t going to cut it for very much longer. At least Alfred would make him something good to eat. And if he kept Damien occupied, he might even be able to rest for a few hours before his next patrol. Ugh. Someone once told him the life of a vigilante was glorious. Dick wanted to punch that person in the face.

“Yeah, alright. I'll be back tomorrow Ollie.” He sighed, and pulled his aching body to its feet. Sleep...sleep would be really nice.

xxx

 

Roy woke in agony. His arm felt like it was on fire again, melting in a white hot pit of pain. Except that couldn’t be right, because he vaguely remembered that he didn't _have_ an arm any more. His throat hurt too – he felt like he'd swallowed razor blades. And he realized he was screaming again. Someone had their hand on his shoulder – the one that hurt, and it was sending spikes of pain knifing through his body. Someone else was trying to grab his left hand which was flailing around like it had a mind of its own, and he knew he wanted that hand off his shoulder _now_ dammit. He managed to rip it away, which helped lessen the pain only for a moment, until someone grabbed his left hand and wrenched it down to the bed.

Then there were two hands on his shoulder and Roy thrashed as hard as he could, trying to get them off. He felt a sharp prick in what was left of his arm, and then the pain deadened.

He collapsed back on the bed, panting harshly. It still hurt, but he only felt a dull throbbing now, not the piercing agony of before. Now that blood wasn't thundering through his ears, he could hear people talking to him.

“Roy! Roy! Can you hear me? He's awake, right? You saw him, his eyes were open!” Dick sounded frantic. The guy was seriously worried about him. That was nice, but strange. Hadn't they broken up a few months ago? Everything in his memory was really foggy, but he was pretty sure they weren't together any more. Or...wait. No. No Dick was straight, and he'd never be Roy's lover. Roy _wanted_ to be, so bad he almost couldn't stand it. He'd come onto Dick a couple of times, and it always fucked up their friendship.

“...automatic reaction to the pain. Might not actually be conscious. I'm going to adjust his pain medicine and fluid levels.” That wasn't Dick talking. Roy didn't really recognize the voice, though they sounded confident, and were using lots of medical terminology, so maybe it was his doctor.

“But he was screaming. You’re telling me he can scream like that and not be conscious?” That was Ollie. Roy didn't know if he was supposed to be mad at Ollie right now or not. They fought an awful lot, and half the time weren't on speaking terms. Thought they'd been getting better because of...of...

Someone opened his mouth, and some kind of gel was squeezed out on the back of his tongue. They they rubbed his throat, and he swallowed reflexively The gel was cool, and numbed his throat. It tingled, like putting Bengay on sore muscles He swallowed again, trying to get rid of the taste in his throat. There was another hand in his short hair, rubbing it in circles, just like he used to do for Lian when she didn't feel well.

“Lian!” He shot straight up in bed, ignoring the stabs of pain that ran through his body, or the ache in his throat. “Where's Lian?!”

He coughed, and let go of Dick's hand to cover his mouth. His hand came away covered in blood.

That go everyone's attention.

“Roy, Roy your throat!” Dick sounded worried and scared.

“Dammit Roy, don't talk!” Ollie sounded angry – no surprise there.

“Mr Harper, you're awake.” The doctor sounded calm. Dr. Mid-night was always fucking calm.

It was extremely hard to talk, but he managed to cough out - “Where is my daughter, dammit?!”

“Sit back Roy, sit back. I'll tell you if you just stop talking.”

It was Dick's absolutely terrified tone of voice that really got through to Roy. He let them push him back onto the bed and Dr. Mid-night injected something into his IV that made it really hard to keep freaking out. He let the meds relax him, and swallowed more of the throat numbing medicine he'd coughed up, and waited for Dick to explain everything to him.

"Do you remember anything about how you got here? About how...you lost your arm?"

Roy shook his head. It was all one big blur of pain and too many painkillers.

"There was an attack. Prometheus. He got aboard the watch tower, and you were the first casualty. He didn't just want to hurt us, he wanted to break us. Break Ollie."

Dick exchanged glances with Ollie. "He blew up Star city."

"Lian-!" He got out a strangled gasp before he was coughing again.

"Jesus Roy, you have to stop that. You're going to have permanent damage!" Dick sounded scared again.

Roy lay back against his pillows again, swallowing what he wanted to say. Dick didn't keep him waiting. "Lian was hurt pretty bad, I'm not going to lie to you. She's not dead, but she is in a coma. The doctors don't know of she's going to ever wake up."

Roy made a low keening noise that hurt his throat way more than it should have. Maybe he was going to have permanent damage. He felt hot tears running down his face. His arm being gone was something he could handle, eventually. But his baby girl...she was only six. She was the only thing that made Roy's life worth living. She was the reason he'd gone cold turkey from the heroin, as horrible as that had been. She was the reason he got up in the morning and went to work, why he put up with Ollie's shit. She was his reason for...everything. She couldn't be - He couldn't even think it. Dick's hand was back on his good arm, soothing him with touch. Dick would have made a great boyfriend, if he wasn't so obviously crazy about Kori and so impossibly straight. Roy had given up on him a long time ago, but he didn't think he'd ever actually get over him. For now, Dick was here when he needed him, and that was enough. It had to be.

**Author's Note:**

> AU Questions? Comments? See a mistake I missed? Leave me a note. :3


End file.
